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Thursday, April 22, 2010

NorthJersey.com: North Arlington must await count of provisional ballots

NorthJersey.com: North Arlington must await count of provisional ballots

North Arlington must await count of provisional ballots
Thursday, April 22, 2010
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER
NORTH ARLINGTON — Taxpayers won’t know if they’ll need to pay 5 percent more to support public schools until election workers tally provisional ballots next week.
Voters cast 15 provisional ballots at the polls Tuesday, Bergen County Elections Superintendent Patricia DiCostanzo said, enough to possibly change the outcome in the school budget vote.
The $21.4 million tax levy proposed by the K-12 district appeared to go down by a 946-938 vote. Budgets supported by more than 900 votes usually pass in the borough, Superintendent Oliver Stringham said Wednesday in a posting on the district Web site.
"Yet, this year there was an X-factor emanating from Trenton that made this a historically challenging endeavor for public education," he said.
If the levy is defeated, the Borough Council will either approve it or identify specific spending cuts to lighten or eliminate the proposed tax hike.
Stringham, in comments made during a state Senate hearing on school funding in March, warned of